Fragrance Du Bois Lucius Maximus is £320 for 100ml on the brand's own site, and £360 at Selfridges. That is £3.20 a millilitre. Aromara Lucius is 80p a millilitre. Exactly four times the price, millilitre for millilitre.
Put another way: £320 buys one bottle of theirs, or eight 50ml bottles of ours.
Lucius is our take on Lucius Maximus. 35% Extrait, 7+ hours guaranteed, 60-day money-back. Try the 5ml for £6.99, or the 50ml at £40 (buy any 2, get 1 free).
Lucius Maximus vs Aromara Lucius
| Fragrance Du Bois Lucius Maximus | Aromara Lucius | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | £320 for 100ml on fragrancedubois.com, £360 at Selfridges (checked 17 September 2026) | £40 for 50ml, £6.99 for 5ml |
| Price per millilitre | £3.20 | 80p |
| Concentration | Sold as a parfum. No oil percentage published. | 35% Extrait, printed on every listing |
| Signature | Coffee and bitter orange over vanilla and tonka | Same signature, full notes below |
| Longevity | Not guaranteed | 7+ hours, guaranteed in writing |
| If you do not love it | Check the retailer's returns policy | 60-day money-back, even after wearing it |
| Made | France | UK, small batch |
What Lucius Maximus smells like
It starts bitter, not sweet. Pink pepper and bitter orange come out swinging, with mandarin and bergamot rounding the edges.
Then the coffee arrives, and that is the whole point of this fragrance. Not a milky coffee, not a coffee cake. Dark roasted beans, slightly burnt, with orange flower cutting through the middle of it.
Cedarwood props the heart up so it does not get gluey. Underneath, vanilla and tonka bean warm everything, while cypriol and vetiver drag it back dry and smoky.
The trick is the tension. Bitter citrus and burnt coffee on one side, vanilla and tonka on the other, and neither one wins.
The notes in full
- Top: Pink Pepper, Bergamot, Mandarin, Bitter Orange
- Heart: Coffee, Orange Flower, Cedarwood
- Base: Vanilla, Tonka Bean, Cypriol, Vetiver
Lucius is built on the same structure, at 35% Extrait.
Who it suits and when to wear it
This is an autumn and winter scent, and it leans masculine without being a sports fragrance. The coffee and the vetiver do that.
It is a strong performer, so two sprays will do. Three if it is cold and you are going out for the night.
Best for evenings, dinners, meetings where you want to be remembered, and anything after 4pm from October onwards. It is heavy for a hot afternoon.
If you already wear coffee-and-tobacco scents and want something sharper and more bitter, this is the one.
How Lucius differs from the original
We print a number. Fragrance Du Bois do not.
Lucius is a 35% Extrait. That is the highest concentration disclosed by any UK dupe brand we have found. Lucius Maximus is sold as a parfum, which is a category name, not a measurement. Nobody publishes the actual oil percentage.
That matters more here than in most scents. Coffee and bitter orange are the first things to fade when a fragrance is thin. At low concentration you get a sharp twenty minutes and then flat vanilla for the rest of the day.
At 35% the coffee is still there hours in. That is why we can put 7+ hours in writing rather than hoping for the best.
We are not claiming ours is the same liquid. It is not. It carries the same coffee, bitter orange and tonka signature, built at a strength the original does not disclose, for a quarter of the price per millilitre.
The 60-day dare
Here is the test. Buy it, wear it for a full day, and if you can get near the £320 bottle, spray them side by side.
If you can tell the difference, you have 60 days to get your money back. Opened, used, half gone, it makes no difference to us.
No other UK dupe brand we know of goes past 30 days. We do not claim free returns and we do not need to. You get two months.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Fragrance Du Bois Lucius Maximus dupe in the UK?
Aromara Lucius is our pick. It is a 35% Extrait built on the same coffee, bitter orange and tonka structure, £40 against £320, with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
How much is the Aromara Lucius Maximus alternative?
£40 for a 50ml bottle, or £6.99 for a 5ml sampler. Buy any 2 bottles of 50ml and the third is free.
What are the notes in Lucius Maximus?
Top: pink pepper, bergamot, mandarin and bitter orange. Heart: coffee, orange flower and cedarwood. Base: vanilla, tonka bean, cypriol and vetiver.
How long does Aromara Lucius last?
7+ hours, guaranteed, or your money back. It is a 35% Extrait.
PS. The maths again. £3.20 a millilitre, or 80p. One of theirs, or eight of ours. Start with the £6.99 5ml sampler and judge the coffee for yourself.
Keep reading: the Fragrance Du Bois story, the cherry-oud wave and the strongest perfume dupes in the UK. Browse all Fragrance Du Bois-inspired scents or shop all fragrances.
